Losing Money to Be a Tycoon

Chapter 700: Fewer Schemes, More Sincerity

“There is only a unified standard contract. This one should be to establish mutual trust between players and the club, with fewer schemes and more sincerity.

“Well, the clubs do have some problem with the contract.

“Previously, the DGE Club sold the players because the other clubs signed with us directly so they did not dare to play tricks.

“What kind of contract traps would they encounter if they joined freely?”

Zhang Yuan was very clear that under the current model, many clubs prepared actually-flawed contracts.

For their own interests, the club must lock down the most promising players at the lowest cost, and the players must also pursue higher salaries and more opportunities for their own interests.

The actions of the two could not be blamed and were for their own interests. However, the problem was that it would actually seriously undermine the mutual trust between the club and the players.

Clubs often offered high prices to snatch a certain star player; however, they would usually embed loopholes in the contract and wait for the player to be fooled.

That was like the routine of many e-commerce websites: gave someone discounts on the surface but charged them back somewhere else.

Everything was fine when they were discussing it, but they would be shocked when they signed the contract.

The result would be that players stopped trusting the club, and the clubs would stop trusting the players. It would become a zero-sum game in too many cases. The interests of the weaker party would be damaged.

Moreover, in most cases, the weaker ones were the players.

The big clubs had their own legal teams which gave them an absolute advantage when signing contracts.

The standard contract requested by Boss Pei was that everyone had to be sure of the price and not make any falsehoods.

Clarify all the previous complicated contract terms and only make changes in terms of time limit, liquidated damages, transfer fees, specific salaries, special terms, etc.

The special terms here were not to restrict players... but to ensure that the club’s promises did not turn into blank checks.

For example, two clubs were competing for a certain player at the same time. The former would pay more and the latter could only pay less, but the playing time could be guaranteed. By then, the players would have more options.

Many times, players would be hesitant... not because they were greedy.

The contract from everyone was different. Those who gave more money may have hidden agendas. Those who gave less might not necessarily harbor evil intentions. How could someone make a hasty decision if they could not bring the contract back and study each slowly?

That was just like selling something; every buyer did not pay a stipulated price but a lot of complicated terms. Players could only expend a lot of energy screening them in case they were played.

However, the problem was that the players were not specialized legal professionals. It would take time and effort to find a specialized legal team, and not all of them were reliable.

Professional players had a youth career. Their lifetime income and prospects would be concentrated in the peak year or two. How could they not shop around?

The clubs also chose amongst many excellent players when they were purchasing them. That was normal business behavior with nothing to pick at.

However, a club’s risk-taking ability was much stronger than the players themselves after all. Signing a wrong player would amount to nothing more than paying more for a porter.

Once something happened, an outstanding young player could risk his entire career.

Therefore, Boss Pei’s target was clear. Make the rules transparent, without any deceit, so even those players without knowledge of the law could understand and decide for themselves.

Freelance players could contact all clubs, and these clubs would make their own commitments; officials would act as intermediaries. Whoever went against the contract would have to pay a penalty.

The club should not think about picking up leaks at low prices and letting players be slaves; individual players should also not think about taking high salaries and taking advantage of the club.

Everyone took a step back, not taking advantage of anyone; let the team member’s income roughly match his value—don’t make it too outrageous.

The secret shooting method was to prevent those wealthy clubs from maliciously raising prices and squeezing the living space of small clubs. At the same time, the interests of the players would not be harmed. The clubs could not collude to push prices. The truly powerful players could still command a high salary.

Moreover, this contract did not harm the interests of the club.

The interests of the club were mainly in three aspects: the attention, popularity, and brand awareness brought by the competition; the tangible economic benefits brought by sponsors; and the insurance that the team members would not be poached.

Boss Pei’s supervision would not have any impact on popularity and brand awareness.

Sponsors and financial interests had not been harmed either.

The club could still sign long-term contracts with players and collect transfer fees. The interests in this regard were not affected.

However, if the club wanted to lock a player with a contract and yet arrived at a conflict with the player, it was impossible to hide it permanently... because the standard contract by Boss Pei obviously did not support this.

Boss Pei would always find a way to get them out once something like that happened.

This standard contract did not intend to let the club starve to death... but to let them eat less and spit out parts for the players.

In this way, players and clubs would establish mutual trust through Tengda’s official intervention, and there would be no need to play schemes with each other. Whatever demands the club or players have on the contract could be handed over to the official party to mediate and resolve.

Of course, there was no absolute fairness in this world, but relative fairness could be pursued.

Was the contract given by the club fairer? Or was the contract given by Boss Pei fairer?

The choice was obvious.

That was because the clubs and the players tried to safeguard their own interests—which was beyond reproach, but it also meant that they would not consider the impact on the entire esports environment.

Moreover, Boss Pei was completely objective and fair in his position, and his determination could be seen from his statement.

Other event organizers have the same interests as the club. In many cases, they dared not or need not offend the club so the players would only suffer losses in silence.

However, Boss Pei’s attitude was very clear—not biased towards the players but not biased towards the clubs.

Clubs that did not agree to this standard contract must have their own schemes in their hearts, thinking about playing some tricks with the contract.

If that was the case, then sorry... while he could not control other places, that club would not be able to participate in GOG esports competitions. He would rather give up the heat and resources that this club brought and maintain the fairness and justice of the entire esports system.

Zhang Yuan couldn’t help but sigh, as he thought about this. That was the determination of a strong man to break his wrist!

In the short term, this move would inevitably cause dissatisfaction among many clubs and even cause the popularity of GOG esports competitions to decline and players’ salaries to decrease.

However, in the long run, the entire ecology would be healthier.

The players also avoided huge risks even if their salaries were lowered.

Obviously, Boss Pei believed that it was ‘cost-effective’ because he believed that the importance of the healthy ecology of the league was far greater than the heat generated by several clubs. He believed that regardless of whether these clubs came to join in or not, they had the confidence to run the GOG league.

Now, taking advantage of the opportunity established by the GPL to establish the access system for each club was actually a precautionary measure.

It was because GOG branches of various clubs had just been formed not long ago. Even if these clubs withdrew, it would not cost much for Boss Pei to buy them up. The impact would be within a controllable range.

It would be even more difficult to establish these standards if enthusiasm really rose in the future.

It was like treating disease, preventing it in advance would definitely be better than having an operation when someone was dying.

As for why there were special regulations that DGE only needed a minimum transfer fee?

Zhang Yuan didn’t understand at first; wouldn’t that miss the DGE Club’s interests?

However, thinking about it again, this was precisely an important supplement to the whole mechanism!

Many newcomers actually had no bargaining power at all when they had not shown results.

This was normal. After all, club buyers also had to take risks. Some players might play well in ranked matches but lose themselves once they get to the competitions. Wouldn’t it be a total loss for the club that spent so much money on the players?

Therefore, contracts for newcomers were often very low.

However, that gave rise to a new problem: those talented players with real strength could only sign new contract contracts at the beginning when their commanding prices were low. They could not get the corresponding salary after showing results; they might even fall out with the club and be hidden away.

Many players had only one or two years at their peak, and if they were not careful, their entire careers would be ruined.

There was no right or wrong in this matter. It was for one’s own benefit, but it would cause a kind of actual waste.

The talented newcomers would receive low salaries, and their mentality would definitely fluctuate, which would affect the performance of the game. If they were to fall out with the club and be hidden, this outstanding player would be buried forever, which was a loss for the entire league.

Therefore, as long as the DGE Club had a minimum transfer fee, it was actually good news for these newcomers.

If someone was a newcomer with strength and confidence in themselves, they could choose to come to the DGE Club first and not fall into loopholes of the newcomer’s contract. If one played well, they would naturally be bought by a better club.

The DGE Club was equivalent to completing a screening on behalf of the other clubs but also gave a chance for the players to prove themselves.

For the DGE club, this was not a loss.

This move would allow more high-spirited and outstanding newcomers to squeeze their heads to enter the DGE Club. This could ensure that the quality of the new players in the DGE Club was higher than other clubs and always maintained a relatively high level of strength, which was conducive to maintaining the DGE Brand Value.

They might not compete, but by transporting these new faces to the league, they could have a sense of presence in front of the audience.

When the audiences realize that these new faces originated from the DGE Club, they would naturally pay high attention to the DGE Club.

Their sponsorships would naturally get better with higher attention. Moreover, other clubs may buy people from there. The transfer fee might be small, but there would still be something to earn.

Moreover, what was so wonderful was that this decision was something that other clubs could not learn.

DGE’s operating model was different from that of all other clubs. They did not need to participate in the competition and did not need to produce results. They only needed to train players. There was no competitive relationship. In fact, it was only a mutual benefit.

What’s more, this move could better maintain the ecology of the entire GOG league, and the entire Tengda Corporation could benefit from it.

Wouldn’t it be cost-effective then... to sacrifice a bit of DGE’s immediate benefits to obtain long-term gains?